Selecting motherboard is really simple. As name suggests "Motherboard" acts as a protective mother of CPU, RAM and other add on cards since these components stand firmly on motherboard.

Number of devices have been integrated on motherboard over a period of time. Now a days motherboard with onboard features is more popular in Branded PCs. Onboard integrated peripherals are offered by many branded PC manufacturers to provide you latest technology if you buy a system from a big computer manufacturer recently.

It is recommended to select motherboard with maximum number of ports preferably with 2 serial, 1 parallel and 4 USB ports. Most of the recent devices have USB port. Also check the upgradation options such as memory support and number of available PCI slots etc.

Technology changes so rapidly that manufacturers add the new features such as serial ATA, USB 2.0 and RAID on the motherboard to stay ahead of the competition. Many manufacturers even provides FM radio on the motherboard to survive in the race making it fully entertainment machine.

Important Motherboard Tips:

1) Do the survey by reading the reviews on motherboards and then look for either same motherboard or compare it with it's competitors product in the market.

2) Don't buy the costliest motherboard if you are not going to use additional features. Always check cost to benefit ratio and make the selection just by assessing the utility value.

3) If you are dedicated gamer or fan of overclocking, verify whether the space around CPU is spacious enough for you to install a larger heat sink-fan combination for cooling. Go for motherboard, which has the facility to overclock FSB in steps of 1 MHz and core voltage adjustment.

4) Confirm that chipset on the motherboard is compatible with the speed of the processor and speed of FSB. It is very important to check the compatibility to improve the system performance.

5) Select feature rich motherboard for future up gradation. Also ensure that it has enough PCI and memory slots for future expansion.

6) If planning for expensive motherboard go for the motherboard with onboard video chipset and an AGP slot. Don't forget to check whether AGP slot supports latest transfer rate.

7) Also see whether motherboard has onboard sound and integrated Ethernet.

8) Check the type of memory that supports motherboard.

9) DDR RAM is the most popular option today. Most motherboards have at least two slots. But expensive motherboards have 4 slots. The total amount RAM you can install is also dependent on the motherboard chipset.

10) The smooth transfer of data without errors is the most important function of the chipset. This function of the chipset decides overall performance of the system. That is why the maximum speed a processor that the chipset supports is very important. In case of future upgrades you will need to change only the processor. This will save your time and money.